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Paris - Day 5

First, I realized that I forgot to mention dinner last night. Oops - my bad. Dinner was okay. The French onion soup was divine! Bridgete had escargot. And a creme caramel desert was mighty tasty.

Day 5 - The Louvre. That's the big museum - with all the famous paintings - and the glass pyramid. And it is every bit as amazing as you might imagine. It's the one time I acted like a rude American - but there is no other way to get close to...that picture....without elbows and rudeness.

I took pictures of what I could. There's this one. She's quite lovely.

And then look at the look on this little girl's face!

So here's the moment you've waited for - literally sweated for - my hair was dripping wet by the time we reached this room. That's her - the little dark square on the other side of that sea of people. Elbows up....

yessir...I saw her. She's pretty amazing. You wish all these other people would just go away so you could have some time alone with her. But now you feel someone's elbow in YOUR ribs and you move out of the way.

And you say good-bye.

You move on to other rooms, other paintings, other beautiful things. Until you are saturated with beauty. It's all too much. And you need a drink because it's SO HOT IN HERE!

The tour has ended. You turn in your headset. You do a little shopping in the shopping center under the museum. You have your something to drink. And you head out to the Jardin des Tulleries, have a croque monsieur at a cafe in the gardens, watch the polite pigeons who take your little crumbs and say 'merci' then wander away until you are ready to toss them another crumb.

Now it's time to take the walk up the champs elysees and find those macaroons at Laduree that are life changing. Little cakes filled with just the right amount of sweetness in raspberry, coffee, caramel, chocolate, mimosa. délicieux

Back at the hotel, you realize you really only have 2 more dinners - 2 more nights in the fabulous city. It's too sad. All too sad. So you comfort yourself with a roast pork with lentils, wine and another tarte tatin. This one is not nearly as good as the first. At least that's what you tell yourself.

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